Letters : . . . . .
Orpington, Kent
The conclusions about culture and handedness in the box accompanying your
article might carry more weight if a more holistic approach were used in the
studies quoted.
Without cultural pressures it would be expected that a person who is
dominantly left-sided would be left-handed. But the genetic influence would be
more accurately revealed by the more spontaneous eye dominance than the
culturally affected and less spontaneous hand dominance of an individual.
As a case in point, I am right-handed (writing and tennis) but am otherwise
left dominated鈥攍eft-eyed (aiming) and left-footed (football, golf and
cricket). My mother is left-handed but my father was right-handed, as are all my
four sisters.
In this instance, looking at side dominance rather than just hand dominance
probably gives more insight into the genetics of the situation. Measuring
discrepancies between eye dominance and hand dominance should therefore lead to
a simple proof of Kevin Laland’s model.
Conclusions drawn from studies focusing only on hands should probably be
viewed with a dominantly jaundiced eye.
Letters : Mobile menace
Chippenham, Wiltshire
Now that videosenders have been made illegal, what about banning mobile
phones? I use a pocket radio on the train, and find that whenever someone
switches on a mobile, the programme I am listening to is drowned out by a loud
whine and clicks.
Although this only happens when a phone is within a radius of about 10
metres, as phones become more and more common so will this problem. Presumably
they could begin to affect car radios and even radios in the home.
Letters : Jumping the gun
Rob Edwards extensively interviewed both myself and my coworker Maxine Craven
when he was conducting the research for his article on opencast coal mining, and
many of the statements about scientific findings are based on material made
available by us
(“Under a dark cloud”, 27 September, p 20).
However, in the midst of correctly quoted pieces of information, a paragraph
was inserted starting with the words “Privately, the scientists admit . . . “
None of my colleagues in Newcastle said anything of the sort. However, it was
implied that the scientists referred to are from Newcastle. The reactions from
other journalists and members of the public following the publication of the
article suggest that this was their perception too.
Opencast coal mining and the potential health effects from living near sites
is of concern to many people. We are at too early a stage of our study to
predict our results and have an open mind about what may occur. By implying that
we already expect certain answers, you are prejudicing the final presentation of
the results of an important study which is of considerable public interest.
Letters : Positively wrong
MDAUGHTON@derwent.co.uk
In the article, “Blessed is the weak”
(11 October, p 28), there appears to be
a mistake in one of the illustrations. The Feynman diagram 1b is supposed to
represent the collision of two photons to produce an electron-positron pair. It
actually appears to represent the collision between an electron and a photon
with the subsequent re-emission of the photon.
Letters : Problem of perfection
London
Reading your article on gene therapy, I was struck by the tendency among
scientists to consider the moral implications of genetic manipulation from a
purely technical viewpoint
(“In sickness and in health”, 25 October, p 20).
I believe the argument needs to be taken back a few steps to the social
effects of introducing genetically perfected traits.
Take the genetically tailored sports competitor. What “normal” person would
spend the hours necessary to train themselves to a peak of fitness only to lose
out to a performance “robot”?
Sport motivates people to pursue healthy lifestyles. Part of this motivation
comes from the possibility of success. If people lose this, then why bother? The
result: an unhealthy population of individuals who see no point in pursuing any
activity they have not been biologically programmed to succeed at. This would
include the pursuit of learning and science itself.
The only solution would be to ensure that the whole population of the planet
is given the same advantage. Is this the next stage in the evolution of
humankind?
Letters : . . . . .
Seattle
Percival labels my transactional interpretation (TI) of standard quantum
mechanics (http://www.npl.washington.edu/ti) as “medieval”, then
proceeds to employ a medieval appeal to authority in support of his view. It is
surprising that he regards the TI as “incompatible with modern science”, since
many modern scientists find it to be the most convenient and transparent way of
thinking through the conundrums of quantum phenomena.
The transactional “handshake” description of quantum events is not
retroactively deterministic, as he implies. In ensuring that your account has a
balance sufficient to cover your purchases, the bank doesn’t determine what you
buy with your card. To claim that the future end of a quantum transaction
determines the past is equally ridiculous.
I have examined the articles to which Percival refers (one of which is by
him) and find no evidence in any of them that standard quantum mechanics had
been falsified by experiment and is in need of revision. Revisionist quantum
theories must remain at the periphery of mainstream physics until such time as
experiments “break” conventional quantum mechanics and cause us to actively seek
alternatives.
In the meantime, it seems preferable to use standard quantum mechanics
together with an interpretation like the TI, which economically accounts for
probability, wave-function collapse, non-locality and other nonintuitive aspects
of the standard theory.
Letters : Classic quantum
Trieste, Italy
Ian Percival raised objections to John Cramer’s transactional interpretation
of quantum mechanics
(Letters, 2 August, p 49).
I would also like to point out
that this interpretation does not contain a parameter that would locate the
boundary between those events that follow the rules of ordinary quantum theory,
and those which show collapse of some sort. In other words, this interpretation
is silent on the essential problem of identifying the split between quantum and
classical, reversible and irreversible, deterministic and stochastic.
The dynamical reduction models described in Mark Buchanan’s article “Crossing
the quantum frontier”
(New 杏吧原创, 26 April, p 38) deal with this
problem in a satisfactory way. I take issue, however, with Buchanan’s argument
that some features of the Ghirardi-Rimini-Weber (GRW) model of quantum mechanics
make it almost as unpalatable as the standard theory. The model introduces small
changes to Schr枚dinger’s equation which ensure that quantum superpositions
in ordinary, everyday objects do not persist for long. This eliminates
Schr枚dinger cat paradoxes, and yet leaves unspoiled the usual accurate
quantum description for electrons, atoms and molecules.
While superpositions in the GRW theory collapse sporadically and
instantaneously, this isn’t necessary. Phillip Pearle has developed a related
continuous theory that achieves the same ends, and Pearle, Rimini, Grassi and
myself have generalised this Continuous Spontaneous Localisation model to
include gravity as a causal element.
But we have also shown that for any continuous theory, there is a
corresponding discrete one having equivalent physical implications. And it is
interesting that John Bell, shortly before his death, said that he preferred the
discrete models. He considered the precise positions and times of the
localisations as fundamental “space-time events” that he thought should form
part of a satisfactory theory.
Since the conceptual status and the achievements of the discrete and
continuous approaches are the same, it is seriously misleading to claim that the
first is as unpalatable as quantum mechanics while the latter is
satisfactory.
Letters : Use and abuse
Auckland, New Zealand
Andy Coghlan’s article on drugs contains the same exasperating double
standards that are usually reserved for the tabloid press
(“Highs and lows”, 25 October, p 36).
It is obvious, when reading the article, that doses of alcohol can vary from
“heavy drinking”, which the text says are harmful, to “a beer or two a day”
which “is not going to hurt you”. The text contains no such distinction for
users of illicit drugs鈥攊ndeed, it seems apparent from the article that all
use is “abuse”.
In my experience as a needle-exchange worker, I found the habits of heroin
users to be as varied as those of alcohol users: opiate use can vary from four
or more times a day to fewer than once a year, and everything in between.
I also found the commentary on Toby Eisenstein’s research to be frustratingly
vague. We are told that mice die of blood poisoning after two days of morphine
doses roughly equivalent to those of a heroin addict. “Addict” is a very loose
term, and without being given specific dosages we are left to guess what this
means.
Even assuming she means the average addict, this would be hardly surprising,
given that heroin is a drug in which tolerance develops with frequent use. The
dose that a daily user would take to feel “normal” would cause chronic
constipation and drowsiness in an elephant. In any case, since the mice die
after two days and humans clearly do not, little comparison can be drawn.
It would seem to me that prejudice rather than evidence is behind the
article’s claim that “you are crazy” to “spliff up or shoot up”.
Letters : . . . . .
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
There is indeed enormous potential for human tissues to replace animals in
research and testing. The Dr Hadwen Trust has 27 years of experience funding
non-animal research, and human tissue plays an increasingly important role.
Two decades ago, the government of the day short-sightedly claimed that
nothing could be done to hasten the development of non-animal alternatives. Jack
Straw, the current Home Secretary, acknowledges their value, both scientifically
and ethically, but must dedicate a realistic budget for rapid development.
Britain lags miserably behind Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands in
government funding for alternatives, which are estimated to have reduced animal
experiments by up to 50 per cent in the last two decades, and could achieve much
more. The public demands it, and the animals deserve it.
Letters : New tests take time
ifhp@chadzombe.u-net.com
Your editorial raises the issue of funding for alternatives to animal
experiments
(25 October, p 3).
One important area at issue is testing the toxicity of chemicals. Toxicity
testing is a legal requirement for the safety evaluation of all new (and many
existing) chemicals, including medicines, food additives, pesticides and
household chemicals. The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act of 1986 stipulates
that animal experiments may only be used where there are no scientifically valid
alternatives. Thus, alternative tests must be validated before they can replace
existing ones.
Unfortunately, the impression has been created that all that needs to be done
for alternative tests to be validated and to replace animal experiments is to
have more research money made available. However, the average time between the
first publication of a test method in the scientific literature and its
acceptance into OECD guidelines (the final international acceptance that a test
is reproducible, robust and effective) is 10 years.
Over the next 10 years, several alternative tests will complete their
validation. But even if they are all acceptable, the number of animals required
for testing a single chemical, such as a food additive or pesticide, will only
be reduced by between 2 and 5 per cent.
The development of new tests depends on knowledge gained over a very wide
field of biology. For example, the tests using bacteria for detecting chemical
mutation would not have been possible without knowledge of genetics developed
over decades. The real need is to invest in the broad development of the
biological sciences, as without this the development of new tests will not be
possible. This will require increased funding of several orders of
magnitude.
Even with that investment, the pace of reduction of the use of animals for
toxicity testing will be slow.
Letters : Up in the air
London
With air pollution levels in Paris triggering restrictions on car use, and
the smoke from Sumatra burning and choking many, perhaps we should look at
pollution levels in Britain.
However, how reliable are the measurements that are taken? My local council
has put up an air quality monitoring unit, presumably to look at pollution from
traffic fumes. Unfortunately, the unit’s intake head is attached to the top of a
10-metre lamppost, not 2 metres high鈥攁pproximate head height. Air is being
monitored at the level of a three-storey building’s gutter, while people are
breathing the diesel fumes much closer to the ground.
On warm, still days, the difference in pollution between the two levels has
been obvious to the eye鈥攂ut the measurements will presumably show that the
air is much cleaner than it actually is.
Letters : Dance of destiny
Bristol
Your interesting article on “The Unselfish Gene” (25 October, p 28) said that
“[Susan] Blackmore supports Dawkins’s ideas and rejects gene-culture coevolution
with its implication that creatures have some control over their destiny”.
Far from it. I am convinced that gene-culture evolution is a powerful force
but I think we need Dawkins’s idea of the meme to understand how it works. On
this view, mental phenomena are driven by the selfish competition between the
memes just as biological phenomena are driven by the selfish competition between
the genes.
The point about destiny is that our lives are not shaped by (mythical) inner
selves who control their bodies, but by the complexity of the dance between the
replicators. We have a long way to go in understanding how these two replicators
together have created our bodies and minds.
Letters : Hybrid habitats
Having read Jon Bridle’s piece on rare species
(Forum, 30 August, p 45), I
would like to make a quick pitch for our photosynthetic friends.
As I recall, in the US the 1973 Endangered Species Act fails to recognise
both naturally occurring plant hybrids and animal hybrids. This is particularly
important in plants as these hybrids can act as reservoirs for a range of
insects and fungi, often due to a slight decrease in hybrid fitness.
These hybrids can often be exclusive habitats for a large number of these
insect and fungal species. An example of this is a hybrid zone between two
Tasmanian eucalyptus species near Hobart, Eucalyptus amygdalina and
E. risdonii (a rare endemic).
Conservation of such hybrids would conserve these valuable centres of insect
and fungal biodiversity.
Letters : . . . . .
Sydney, NSW
A powerful influence that is not mentioned in the article, but is mentioned
in other work, is birth trauma. Something at birth could tip the balance. Has
anyone compared laterality between people born naturally and those born by
Caesarean section?
One observation that Laland’s theory does not appear capable of explaining is
the higher death rate of left-handers, as first found by Stanley Coren. How
would a social pressure early in life translate to premature death decades
later?
Letters : Correction
As J. J. C. Monk so kindly points out, in Figure 4 of “Food, glorious food”
the female symbol was printed upside down so that it resembled the symbol for a
church. More seriously, the prevalences of clinical obesity shown for males and
females were inadvertently switched (for example, in 1986 the figures should
have been 11 per cent for women and 8 per cent for men), and the top calibration
on the vertical axis should be 15 per cent, not 20 per cent as printed. Also, in
figure 2 the words “micrograms” and “milligrams” were interchanged in the
vitamin A and C columns. Red faces all round鈥擡d.
Letters : Fat churches
Walton-on-the-Naze Essex
I was puzzled by the diagram on page 4 of Inside Science (“Food, glorious
food”, 18 October). While the evidence of an increase in numbers of clinically
obese males is all around us, I fail to see the reason for comparing them with
the rates for churches with spires. Have the facts been checked, as I am unaware
of any criteria by which the obesity of a church can be evaluated.
Yours with tongue in cheek,
Letters : . . . . .
Godalming, Surrey
Imagine what it’s like being a part of an environmental organisation (ten
syllables) called WWF (seven syllables). Then visit our Web site: double you
double you double you dot double you double you eff hypen you kay dot org. By my
reckoning, 23 syllables. See you online!
Letters : . . . . .
Aberdeen
Yost should perhaps consider adapting to the “www” convention instead of
trying to fight it. It is all in the pronunciation and those of us sad enough to
discuss Web addresses with each other generally refer to “www” as simply
“triple-dub”.
Letters : Wow, wow, wow
On the “www mouthful”, rather than adopt Dave Yost’s suggestion of changing
“www” in your URLs to “web”
(Letters, 25 October, p 58), I propose an
alternative and perhaps simpler pronunciation convention, already successfully
adopted by people called Cholmondeley, especially those who live in
Milngavie.
That is, just pronounce “www” as something easier, such as “wow”, for
instance.